Kapala Training

Kapala Training is a four-level training program designed for deeper learning and understanding about the Feeding Your Demons® process and becoming certified to help others. The training offers an in-depth exploration of the Chöd teachings of 11th century Tibetan yogini, Machig Labdrön; related Mahayana teachings of Prajña Paramita; as well as the practice of Feeding Your Demons® developed by Lama Tsultrim Allione. The Training is designed both for professionals, who can apply these practices to their healing work, and for individuals who wish to work deeply with their own ‘demons’ through contemplative practice.

Lama Tsultrim brings an eleventh-century Tibetan woman’s practice to the West for the first time in her book, Feeding Your Demons: Ancient Wisdom for Resolving Inner Conflict (Little Brown Co. 2008), outlining an accessible and effective approach for dealing with negative emotions, fears, illnesses, and self-defeating patterns. Lama Tsultrim—one, among few female Buddhist leaders in America, and comparable to Pema Chödrön in the importance of her work—bridges this ancient Eastern practice with modern Western psyche. In her book, she explains how when we fight our demons they grow stronger. If we feed and nurture them, however, we can free ourselves from the battle. Through the clearly articulated practice outlined in Feeding Your Demons®, we can learn to overcome any obstacle and achieve freedom and inner peace.

The Kapala Training levels

Kapala Training Level 1

Prerequisites: None

Kapala Training Level 1 includes:

Feeding Your Demons®

– solo and partner work

Feeding Your Demons® with drawing and clay

Extended Ally Process – solo and partner work

Prajna Paramita practice

Kapala Training Level 2

Prerequisites:

Completion of Kapala Training Level I

65 Feeding Your Demons® processes: 50 solo and 15 with a partner

For partner work, tracking forms from both partners equal one partner work process. This should not be done with clients. It is acceptable to work with gods instead of demons for some of these sessions.

20 Extended Ally Processes: 10 solo and 10 with a partner

108 hours of Prajna Paramita practice

A practice session is a minimum of 30 minutes. One hour is recommended. 30 minutes is just for those with very limited time. This 30 minutes includes the beginning and ending prayers.

Plant a tree or sponsor a tree to be planted.

This requirement came to Lama Tsultrim in a dream in which she was flying over Europe and saw that it was dry, parched and very hot. She heard a voice that said: “For Climate Change everyone should plant a tree before Kapala Training Level 2.” Planting a tree connects your practice to healing the earth and to Machig’s tree experience during her initiation from Sonam Lama.

Kapala Training Level 2 includes:

Making a full-sized body map

This entails tracking where the 65 demons/gods you did between Kapala Training Level 1 and 2 appeared in your body and reflecting on what you see in the body map.

Male and female family lineage demon and ally maps

A hydra map looking at a constellation of demons/gods

“Transmitting the Meaning of the Mother,”* practice

“Supplication to Machig Labdrön Nature of Mind,”* practice

“Cutting the Four Demons Loose into Space”* practice

Teachings on excerpts from the “Grand Poem of Aryadeva the Brahmin” and “Machig’s Last Instructions”

Taking and Waking practice

If you intend to apply for Feeding Your Demons® certification, you will need to do the following:

200 thirty-minute sessions of the Four Immeasurables* practice (as learned in the Three Yana Retreat)

In Kapala Training Level 4 you will receive:

“Machig’s Direct Transmission” from Lama Tsultrim

“Movement practice”

“5 Elements Practice”

Kapala Training Level 5

Prerequisites:

Completion of Kapala Training Levels 1, 2, 3, and 4

200 hours of “Machig’s Direct Transmission”

200 hours of “5 Elements Practice”

Completion of the “Zhitro”* (Namchö Mingyur Dorje) Retreat

Completion of the “P’howa”* (Chagdud Khandro) Retreat

In Kapala Training 5 you will receive:

“Machig Labdrön and the Five Chakra Dakinis” practice from Lama Tsultrim

Mandala and Other Required Practices

The Mandala practices may be done once the Three Yana Retreat has been completed and transmission has been received for the practices. There are 150 practice sessions per Mandala practice; 30 sessions with each of the five families.

Beginning with Mandala of the Five Dakinis:

1.5 hours practice – one hour of the Mandala of the Five Dakinis practice followed sequentially by thirty minutes of transformational personal work related to each family of the five dakinis.

This transformational personal work consists of working with Buddha, Vajra, Ratna, Padma, and Karma families and their encumbered patterns either with Feeding Your Demons®, Feeding Your Demons® with Art (drawing, painting, or clay), Guided Meeting with the Dakini, or Mandala Work with Your Hands.

Mandala Practice Requirements:

225 hours of Mandala of the Five Dakinis

30, 1.5-hour sessions with each family (5 families total) (This should be done prior to attending KT3)

225 hours of Five Buddha Mandala

30, 1.5-hour sessions with each family (5 families total) (This can be done any time)

225 hours of Yab Yum Mandala

30, 1.5-hour sessions with each family (5 families total) (This can be done anytime)

Mission Statement

Tara Mandala’s mission is to offer both solo and group practice, study, and retreat inspired by and anchored in authentic lineages of Vajrayana Buddhism, nurturing a complete path to ultimate realization as well as exploring the interface between Buddhist teachings … More→